UAF: lecture by Devra Davis on cancer prevention and public health policy

Condensed from the public announcement:

UAF is hosting a talk by Devra Lee Davis, a University of Pittsburg epidemiology professor and author, on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. in Schaible Auditorium. Davis’ lecture, “The Secret History of the War on Cancer,” is free and open to the public, and will be webcast at the website of the Center for Alaska Native Health Research.

Devra Davis advocates for changing the way public health looks at cancer prevention by including toxin awareness.

“I believe if we had acted on what has long been known about the industrial and environmental causes of cancer when this war first began, at least a million and half lives could have been spared…” she writes in the preface to her book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer. Published in 2007, the book is used at major schools of public health, including Harvard, Emory, and Tulane universities.

Davis is the director of the University of Pittsburg Center for Environmental Oncology, the world’s first research institute dedicated to studying cancers caused by environmental pollution. She is also an epidemiology professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health.

The Center for Alaska Native Health Research at the UAF Institute for Arctic Biology, University Advancement, Alaska INBRE, the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics; Alaska EPSCoR, and Tanana Chiefs Conference are sponsoring her trip.

Davis will also give public lectures in Nome and in Anchorage at the University of Alaska Anchorage. The Alaska Community Action on Toxics is the host for this part of her Alaska journey.